Justice Kirby on Code as Law

Technology has outpaced the legal system’s ability to regulate its use in matters of privacy and fair use rights, said Kirby… “We are moving to a point in the world where more and more law will be expressed in its effective way, not in terms of statutes solidly enacted by the parliament… but in the technology itself—code,” said Kirby.

I think that’s a great quote, and it shows that Justice Kirby has a pretty solid understanding of what code is, how it interacts with law, and that the USA’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)—and Australia’s Digital Agenda Act—are dangerous things. (I do think that the builderAU article emphasis on Google and Yahoo being the two culprits seem odd, although it’s hard to say this without listening to Kirby’s original speech.) I’ve always been a fan of Justice Kirby, and it’s nice to know that somebody-on-high understands that code-as-law is a problem, and it’s a complex one.